Seminarians' Pilgrimage

The time has come to bring an end to our blog, and close up our shared thoughts with one last post.

In the beginning, neither Luke nor myself intended to write a blog but it has been a worthwhile experience. There were times when it was annoying to stay up a little later to write a post or when it was difficult to think of something to say. Nevertheless we are glad to have written it. We have been very moved by hearing how many have followed it so closely. It is our hope that it has been an inspiration and an aid to grow deeper in your own walk with the Lord. We pray that you will continue to make progress in your journey to know Christ more personally and to conform your way of life to his model, as we all must do.

Our pilgrimage has come to its end, which reminds me of the first time that Luke and I stopped to pray morning prayer on the Camino.

It wasn’t until the end of Psalm 42 that we realized what the antiphon said: “When will I come to the end of my pilgrimage and enter the presence of God?” It was a funny thing to be praying after the first hard hours of a long upward battle. At the time, it was a good reminder to keep in mind our purpose of pilgrimage: heaven. Our European pilgrimage has come to an end. I don’t think it is quite accurate to say that we’ve “entered into the presence of God” but I hope that our walking with him along these many miles will help us to keep in mind his presence, to help us pray more continually and to love greater so that one day we may enter into his eternal presence.

Thank you for your prayers, and know of ours for you.

-Michael Wanta

This is a short story about one of the coolest moments from my time in Kraków.

During World Youth Day, a black market like trade system emerges. This market is all about souvenirs from different countries. People bring unique items from their homeland to trade and barter for other goods. I was tipped off about this phenomenon before I left, and brought several American souvenirs to trade.

Many people bring pins, keychains, religious articles, and banners. However, the most covened items are national flags and by far the American flag is the most prized. Luckily I brought the Stars and Stripes with me.

People constantly kept coming up to me asking to trade and some times even offering cash to take my flag. I refused all offers that came. That was until we went out for dinner one night.

While at dinner, a group of French pilgrims came in with custom matching WYD shirts. As the group was about to leave I asked one of them if they would trade for the shirt off their back. Two quickly responded with “no, no, I love this too much”. Another one spoke up and said he would give his away for 100 dollars. When I told him that was way to much he simply shrugged his shoulders and said “it’s French, what do you expect”.

Without saying another word, I reached into my backpack and pulled out the full sized American flag. As soon as he laid eyes on it, his shirt came flying off. The whole group jumped up out from their table and began chanting USA! They told us that although they do not say it all the time the actually love American culture.

The pictures below show the great trade in action.

-Luke

On our first day in Krakow, we arrived early into the station from a midnight train. After waiting a while for our tour guide, we made our way to the gym which was hosting us and we unpacked our things.  Soon after, we walked to the tram and found our way to the Shrine of Divine Mercy. The shrine is situated on a large campus and contains the convent of St. Faustina, a basilica of the Divine Mercy Image, and a Church dedicated to Pope St. John Paul II very near to the quarry in which we worked during the war. On his way back from work he would stop by the convent and pray a while. It was there that he intimately discovered the devotion to God’s Divine Mercy that had be entrusted to St. Faustina.

St. Faustina was visited several times by our Lord who desired to share with humanity the message of his unfathomably divine mercy. He loves humanity so intensely and wants each of us to find in his heart a place of healing and reconciliation. This message came at a most needed time, directly before the outbreak of WWII, and it would help to sustain the Polish people even through Communist occupation. It would be worth giving a look to St. Faustina’s diary or the Divine Mercy Chaplet to learn a little more about this devotion. The Chaplet is a short yet powerful one that helps one to meditate on the sacrifice of the Cross: “Eternal Father, I offer you the body and blood, soul and divinity, of your dearly beloved son, our lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world” and “For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world” are the main prayers.

we didn’t have much time at the sanctuary, but enough to walk through the Basilica and to see the Church dedicated to JP II. The grounds were packed and it provided a pretty cool first glance at what WYD could be. So many young people had come to the shrine to venerate the relics and to learn a little more about God’s love.

 

The next day we visited Auschwitz, and experienced a sliver of the suffering that Poland went through.

Although there were no guided tours offered due to the large amount of pilgrims, one of the workers stopped us as we entered the main gate and gave us a presentation on the conditions of life in the camp and the numbers of prisoners. It was staggering. we were told that the bones and dust of prisoners had been used to create the road we were standing on. I was struck by the small perimeter of the first camp and yet how many barracks there were and how many prisoners must have been crammed into each.  There wouldn’t have been much space at all.

The second camp could not be more opposed. It was absolutely massive. it must have took us 2 hours to walk it, and that wasn’t even the whole perimeter! The place was filled with a reverent quiet and its visitors with a mournful curiosity to learn what this place was and what had happened here. This memorial quote was written in more than a dozen languages: “For ever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity, where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women, and children, mainly Jews from various countries of Europe. Auschwitz-Birkenau 1940 – 1945”

It is sad to think that the message has not been heard throughout the world. That genocides still happen.

The trip was a sobering experience, and for a long time left me speechless. What could I say after being pummeled by the size of the place and the multitude of numbers and statistics that had been thrown at me? Even after seeing the place it is hard to understand it all. Yet a few rays of hope shown through.

I thought of those that survived, those who revolted and destroyed one of the gas chambers and crematories. I thought of saints like Maximilian Kolbe and Edith Stein who were not conquered by the hate of the Nazis. St. Max willing gave up his life to rescue a father who had been picked for the starvation bunger. The Martyr then spent two weeks in the cell encouraging his fellow prisoners with prayer and song until he was finally killed by lethal injection. He was a light in such a dark place, whether by the gift of his life in the starvation bunker or in his daily activities he gave hope to his fellows. He reminded them that God was still there even in such darkness. In the midst of such hatred, love for humanity was still possible. Just by seeing the buildings and reading what had happened there I felt the obligation to love and to mourn those so badly treated. I imagine that this feeling must have been similar to impetus that drives people like JP II who lived through such horrendous times, endured much personal suffering, saw many of his friends and much of his nation destroyed. Yet his love for humanity seemed endless and was certainly a reflection of God’s love for us, something that he learned through St. Faustina and his experiences.

A few hours previously, we had visited the hometown of St. John Paul II. It was a quick tour, but we had enough time to see his parish Church and the font in which he was baptised. I didn’t think much of it until I saw a picture of the modern day saint kneeling down and praying with a hand supporting himself resting on the font. It struck me how cool that was. A saint praying at his baptismal font, the place where the life of God first dwelt within him. The place where he became a child of God. It was pretty crazy to see where it all began for him.

It has been a long post and I hope that my thoughts have not been too scattered, but that they have given a small look into the depth of significance that lies in Poland. It is a country that has suffered so much yet has kept its faith in God and has given rise to great saints in the process.

 

-Michael

Here are just a few of the many pictures that were taken from our Group’s photos of WYD. I hope that they can give a good sampling of our experiences.

 

Here is the Sanctuary of our host parish in Sopot, Poland. This is where we met for Adoration and Mass during our “days in the diocese.”

A shot of the Old Town of Gdansk, a very old and historic city. Much of it was destroyed in World War II, but has since been rebuilt in the same style.

            

 

Another shot of Gdansk’s main square. There were also bubble bins spread throughout many of the Polish cities we visited. It was a cool place where families would stop for a bit and play.

Here is a picture of Solidarity Square and a view of the Shipyards. The Solidarity Workers’ Union movement started in Gdansk and was a pivotal cause of Communism’s downfall. We visited the museum there and learn a lot about the difficulties the movement went through, the sacrifices the members made, and the help and inspiration which Pope St. John Paul II was to them. the square has three pillars with a crucified anchor, a symbol of hope, on each. The monument commemorates the Solidarity Movement’s efforts for freedom by the cross, a symbol of both defeat and victory, or rather of victory through great loss and suffering.

Here is a shot of a cool pirate ship that we road on a short voyage to Westerplatte, the site of one of the first battles of the WWII. The battle waged for a week as 180 Polish troops held off 3,500 Germans.

A quick view of our living conditions in Krakow. The first picture is our sleeping area in the gym with sleeping bags and luggage from many groups spread all around. The second is of some very happy pilgrimes enjoying a warm meal after a long and rainy day. After a midnight train, we had arrived in Krakow around 7am, managed to travel across the city to our gym and then to the Divine Mercy Shrine. The Shrine was packed and we were able to split up and see a few things before the rain started and we hiked to a mall to get out of the rain and grab some food. The third is a picture of us eating our breakfast in our daily spot near by our gyms.

During the trip we experience many different Mass. Some in small town Churches, others in soaring Basilicas, one with 2 million people and the Pope and some others with just ourselves in a classroom as a make-shift chapel.

A picture of the crowd in the divine Mercy Shrine grounds.

St. Mary’s basilica on the main square in Krakow, an ancient and very beautiful Church with one of the largest altar pieces. Though it wasn’t the best spot to pray during WYD, as the surrounding square was filled with young people, night and day, chanting and such.

 

Enan and I managed to find two popes at the Mercy Centre Catechesis!

The packed streets on our way to Campus Misericordiae, Field of Mercy, the site of the Vigil and Mass with the Pope. About 2 million pilgrims packed themselves onto a few roads that led out to the field. Most of the time there wasn’t too much room and we needed to make backpack chains to stay together.

 

Our camp site in Sector A10 of the Campus Misericordiae. We weren’t too far away from the stage where the Pope would be, at least compared to many many others, but we still needed a large screen to see what was going on.

A pile of some random foods which people donated to us since we didn’t get our food bags until much later in the night.

Two shots of the the Prayer Vigil with the Pope as Night was falling. We were entrusted with candles to foster our participation. Plus it looked awesome to see 2 million floating lights in the giant field.

Lastly, here is a picture of Our Lady of Czestochowa. On our way to Warsaw we stopped by the little town where this miraculous image of the Queen of Poland, Mary the Mother of God, is enshrined. And so our pilgrimage was bookend with Mary, as we would leave Poland a day or so later.

 

-Michael Wanta

The first large gathering in Kraków was a welcoming ceremony for the Holy Father. This is also where we began to understand just how many pilgrims made the trip to Poland.

The opening ceremony was to take place in Błonia field, a short distance  from Kraków city center. The walk to the grounds was some what grueling but also electric. The narrow streets of Poland were not ready for about 2 million of us. It seemed like each group was carrying a flag, which added to the party like atmosphere.

We finally made it to our section on the field, and everywhere I looked there was no end to the crowds. Pope Francis rode through the crowds in the popemobile accompanied by thunderous applause on his way to the main stage. There was multiple speeches given and gifts exchanged, however the highlight was the reading of the gospel followed by a short speech from the Holy Father.

The day’s gospel was read in Latin and Greek, as many of our eastern brothers were present at World Youth Day. It was during the procession of the gospel books that the beauty of the World Youth Day experience hit me. Millions of faithful from every corner of the world gather around the vicar of Christ to listen to the Word of God. Joy was radiating from everyone in attendence. This joy stemmed from Christ’s presence among us in many different forms. First of all, our Lord was present in the spoken word of the Holy Gospel.

Often I think of my own parish and Diocese as a microcosm of the church. At that moment Kraków became a macrocosm of the Universal Church.

-Luke